


Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden

by Clever_friend



Category: Christian Bible (New Testament), The Omen (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26222062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clever_friend/pseuds/Clever_friend
Summary: The sequel to the movie Omen III. Kate went to Heaven. Things were good ‘til she noticed her son wasn’t there. A crossover with the Parable of Rich Man and Lazarus
Kudos: 4





	Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden

**Author's Note:**

> Translated into English by [Kana_Go](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kana_Go)

Kate didn’t even make it to the exit from the ruined church, leaving behind the Antichrist’s dead body, when the whole world changed. That wasn’t how she imagined it: an army of angels didn’t appear to fight demons, no one made a crowd of people stand all together and watch the Last Judgment – the sky just rolled like a scroll and the earth disappeared. Her entire life flashed before her eyes – and before the Creator’s eyes – but no one was looking at her anymore because each person was judged separately at the same moment, and she was grateful for that. The sharp burning shame she felt when her Father’s gaze reached the night with the Antichrist suddenly subsided and then as if got washed away with clean water – and she realized she was forgiven, forgiven forever. She had confronted the Antichrist and nothing else in her life mattered anymore. Clad in white, a crown of diamonds on her brow, she entered the City of Gold.

Happiness was boundless here. All the trees bore fruit, the grass was soft and fragrant, and although her new body didn’t feel hunger at any minute she could pick a gold apple or any other wonderful fruit and enjoy its taste. She could jump into the river and drink its clean water. She could look at most beautiful sunsets and sunrises – without feeling sleepy, it was Heaven after all – and she didn’t become bored with it. All the people she met there were full of love and gave each other welcoming kisses even if they didn’t know each other. So she wasn’t shy to greet them with a kiss, either – the very air here was filled with love. They didn’t need to tell each other their names, they understood immediately what they should call each other. She didn’t know how many sunrises and sunsets had passed and how many brothers and sisters she had met when one day she saw a particularly beautiful sunrise (or was it a sunset?) and turned around to show it to her son. 

“Peter, just look…” she started but trailed off. 

Peter wasn’t there. Probably she hadn’t found him yet among those who lived in the City of Gold. Probably she would meet him soon. Because if she wouldn’t… Because if Peter wasn’t there… 

Only then, suddenly, she heard his voice. He was calling her. 

“Mum!” 

His scream was loud, so loud. She turned around but didn’t see her son anywhere. He kept calling her so she looked behind every tree because she thought he was probably playing hide-and-seek with her, but there was no sign of him. Then she approached the very edge of the city hanging in the sky and looked down. 

Peter was down there. 

In roaring bright scarlet flames, among the crowd of people who had burned to the bone and were writhing in unbearable pain, her son was calling her from the pit of Hell. 

“Peter!” she shouted, and he heard her.   
“Mum!” Peter answered hoarsely. “Mummy, please, please… Bring me some water! Mum, give me some water!”

From that moment on, she didn’t have a moment’s peace.

She ran to the nearest river. As soon as she scooped a handful of water and thought it wasn’t enough and she needed a pitcher – a pitcher appeared next to her. It turned out she could create everything she wanted. It was Heaven after all. 

Several times she tried to pour some water from the pitcher down, but the droplets evaporated before they could reach Hell. And her son kept calling her. 

“Father Abraham!” she attracted the attention of the man who was walking by and could definitely help her. “Tell me how I can give some water to my son. Or tell me how I can go up to him with my pitcher, he’s suffering so much!”

“Child, just remember that your son himself renounced salvation,” Abraham smiled. “Even if you wanted to go to him, between us and them there is a great gulf fixed so that those who want to pass from here to them cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.”

Kate wanted to cry, but she couldn’t shed any tears. It was Heaven after all.   
Then she remembered that this man had been ready to kill his son for the love of God. Maybe he just didn’t understand her? Maybe someone else here would be kinder?

The people were kind to her. They told her Peter had chosen his fate by himself and it would be unfair to take his freedom away from him. They said the tortures of Hell only seemed horrible to the residents of Heaven, but they were actually pleasant for the sinners. They said if she was true to her belief she had to abandon her feelings for her son. Everyone felt sorry for her, no one remained indifferent. But nobody knew a way to give him even a drop of water.

“I will pray for you,” a man called Marcus Vinicius told her. “I will pray for you to forget him”. 

“No!” Kate cried, frightened. “If I forget about him he’ll stay there forever!”

“Sister, he will stay there forever,” Marcus Vinicius said and Kate saw the reflection of her pain in his eyes. “We will not be able to do anything. I prayed and I forgot. I have someone there, too.”

“We all have someone there.” His wife Calina approached them. “Only oblivion can heal us.”

But Kate looked at their smiles and understood that even oblivion hadn’t been able to cure them completely. Their love for those who hadn’t come here was stronger. 

“We are praying for them,” Calina said. “We will pray for your son, too”.   
Then Kate felt tears flowing down her face. It turned out it was possible to cry with gratitude.   
But their prayers changed nothing.  
***

Now Kate spent all her days near the city edge. Her pitcher was always beside her. 

But one day – she didn’t remember how long she’d been sitting here and waiting for a miracle – she saw a hand, scorched to the bone, which reached out for the gold edge of the city from somewhere below and long soot-smeared nails left four furrows in the soft metal (an index fingernail was ripped off). Then the hand tensed and the other hand, covered with blisters and burns, appeared. Finally, digging his fingernails into the gold curb, a man pulled himself up. He stank of burnt meat, soot and blood so bad Kate would vomit if they were on the earth, but it was Heaven so she only got surprised. She froze for a moment wondering if she should grab his hand and help him get to the gold shore out of the void or her action would only cause him more pain: his hands would most probably hurt like hell at the slightest touch. While she was thinking he did it on his own. He was naked and his whole body was covered with burns, even more horrible than those on his hands. His skin was falling off his face in ribbons and all his hair was lost to fire. He tried to say something, but only strained wheezing came out of his burnt throat. He was unrecognizable. However, Kate recognized him immediately. Because Damien Thorn wasn’t a human and it was easy to recognize the Antichrist in the Garden of Eden. She’d never thought it was possible to feel such a visceral hatred in Heaven, but he was the Fiend and hatred of him was allowed. 

“You!” she hissed. “It’s you! It’s all your fault!” 

In one swift movement, Damien snatched the pitcher out of her hands and spilled its contents on him. Throwing his head back, he was swallowing the water she’d prepared for her son. If there were any justice in the world this heavenly water would dissolve him into a small sulfurous pool. But it turned out that this water could heal wounds and cure burns: once again he was the Damien she’d seen on their first and only night – young, handsome, with smooth black hair. Naked. 

“My fault?” he said with such familiar sarcasm that Kate wanted to push him back. “You say it’s my fault? Are you going to say it’s me who created this pool of sulfur and set it on eternal fire? Maybe you think it’s me who threw all… almost all people there, myself included?” 

“You deserved it like nobody else! Because of you, my son…” 

He looked into her eyes and she understood that her hatred was entirely mutual – just like their attraction and passion had been once. 

“Your son chose his own way, and you saw it. You could have taken my side. You could have just stepped aside. But you preferred to interfere and destroy everything! Didn’t you know what end he’d been planning for us – for me, for my father, for almost all people? So, do you like it? Are you satisfied? Are you happy? Do you remember what Abraham told you? He understands better than anyone what it’s like to sacrifice one’s own child. You know, Kate,” Damien’s voice grew low and drawling, “I’ve always wanted to ask my foster father – both of them – how it feels when you sell your son for a gold paradise apple. They’re not here though so I’m asking you. Because it was you who killed me then and I could’ve fought and won, I could’ve protected and saved people from His power.” Damien screwed up his face with disgust. “And Peter understood that. Why didn’t you talk to me? Why didn’t you at least talk to him? All those people down there – it’s not me who’s torturing them nor it’s my father. It’s the one who prepared this little warm place for you, the one you call Love. Are you still? Or you finally opened your eyes?”

She couldn't answer. All the words the residents of Heaven had said to console her, all the assurances that the ones living in the abyss had deserved their fate just didn’t want to come out of her mouth. Because Peter was there. She knew he hadn’t deserved this even for a minute, not to mention eternity. 

“We’re preparing an uprising,” Damien said, suddenly calm again. 

Frightened, Kate looked around and he laughed. 

“Don’t be afraid. He can’t hear. His omniscience is grossly exaggerated. Even on the first day of Temptation, he didn’t realize ‘til the very evening that my father had penetrated into Eden. If Adam and Eve hadn’t put on leaves he wouldn’t have known anything about the fate of that fruit for a long time. He even thought none of us would be able to get out of Gehenna and climb up here. Yes, we’re preparing an uprising because no one dares to burn us eternally and consider himself Good. Even here at least a few people should understand it. Not everyone here is like Abraham, even in Heaven someone should have a heart.” He reached for the nearest tree, picked a gold apple, took an absentminded bite, and continued, “I need a spy here. Someone who’s a virtuoso in betraying. So I thought about you. Who’ll suit better than you, Kate? Is there anyone else here, in Heaven, who can betray in such masterly fashion?”

She had felt better when there had been hatred ringing in his voice. Now he was talking almost sorrowfully and she didn’t even attempt to blame him again. 

“Spies don’t work for free, you know,” she said suddenly, making up her mind. 

“Whatever you ask,” he answered quickly. 

He already knew what she needed. 

Kate took a few steps aside, leaned over – and a spring started to flow next to her immediately. She could summon water by willing it. It was Heaven after all. She filled her pitcher again. 

“You will bring this pitcher to Peter. Don’t you dare have even a drop.” 

Damien dropped a gold apple core into the void under the shore, spread black wings she’d never seen he possessed, and threw himself into the abyss. 

A few minutes later Peter’s screams which had been torturing her ears for so long stopped. She saw Damien throw the contents of the pitcher over him. The water from the Garden of Eden flowed down Peter’s face, granting him coolness and healing. She saw peace and delight on his oh so smooth boyish face. It lasted for a very short eternity. Then the fire started burning him again and a loud scream ‘Mum!’ started ringing anew in Kate’s ears. 

Now when Damien kept his word she knew that everything could be fixed. Peter didn’t have long to suffer. Now when she knew how to stop it she was ready to do whatever it took. First she probably needed to find Marcus Vinicius and Calina. 

She got up, took a deep breath of cool fresh air, and disappeared into the depths of the garden – the Antichrist’s first spy in the City of Gold.


End file.
